This invention relates generally to the manufacture of coil zippers and, specifically, this invention relates to a method of making coil zippers fire retardant.
Over the last few years, various governmental agencies have been requiring the treatment of certain fabric articles to make them fire retardant. These requirements have been especially stringent in manufacturing clothing and, in particular, clothing for children. Yet, the requirement for making certain articles fire retardant is not limited only to clothing but covers a wide variety of fabric materials. Furthermore, there are many fabric articles which are treated by their manufacturers to be fire retardant notwithstanding the fact that there might not be any particular requirement to do so. Thus, there are a wide variety of articles which are made fire retardant, either because of laws or regulations, or completely voluntarily. These articles include not only clothing, and in particular, children's clothing, but they also include camping equipment such as tents, sleeping bags, draperies and curtains, and the like. The treatment of the fabric used to make these articles is usually fairly straightforward.
But, many of these articles are fabricated from fabric and then have attached to them a variety of fasteners such as zippers.
Most people think of a zipper as being a metal fastener, but they are unaware that the latest development in zippers is the so-called coil zipper which is completely fabricated of a plastic material, usually a polyester. Furthermore, the zipper is combined with a fabric tape which, in turn, is attached to the garment or other article by stitching or some other suitable means.
It is not completely satisfactory to manufacture a garment, for instance, using a fire retardant fabric only to include a zipper which may not be fire retardant or which may be mounted on a fabric tape which is not fire retardant. Yet, the normal methods for impregnating a fabric with a fire retardant material are not completely satisfactory for rendering a coil zipper fire retardant.